Give us the courage to trust You
in all things, to meekly submit ourselves to the will of the Father in order
for the works of God to work through us. We know, Lord, that in humility of
spirit and in the obedience of faith You can use us to further the Kingdom of
Heaven on earth by the witness of a life transformer by Your light. We place
ourselves in Your hands, Lord, to use us according to Your divine will. We humbly
pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart
and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:29-30

Now,
Moses himself was by far the meekest on the face of the earth.

Numbers
12:3

The first
step on the stairway to eternal life in "poverty of spirit" acknowledges God's
sovereignty over your life, and your complete dependence on Him places you in
child-like faith before the throne of God. Face to face with a pure and holy
God, you mourn your sins and the sins of the world. The first step identifies
your relationship to God and the second refines you with the purifying fire of
repentance. It is the third step, "blessed are the meek" which renews you and
places you as a useful tool in the hands of the Master of the universe.

Matthew 5:5: Blessed
are the meek, for they will inherit the land.

The Greek
word praus, [pronounced prah-ooce'], means mild, humble, or meek. The
word praus only appears four times in the New Testament: three times in
Matthew [5:5; 11:29; 21:5] and once in 1 Peter 3:4. In both Matthew 11:29 and
21:5 Jesus Himself is called "meek" just like the prophet Moses before Him [see
Numbers 12:3]. In addition to the passage in Matthew 5:5: Blessed are the
meek, this Greek word for "meek" is used in:

Matthew 11:29

Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you
will find rest for yourselves.

Matthew 21:5

Say to
daughter Zion, Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

1 Peter 3:4

but
rather the hidden character of the heart, expressed in the imperishable
beauty of a gentle [meek] and calm disposition, which is precious in the
sight of God.

This is another Greek word which
Christians gave a uniquely Christian character, with "meekness" becoming the
symbol of a higher Christian virtue as illustrated in these three verses. The
pre-Christian Greek culture meaning of this word expressed an outward conduct
that related to only men, and not necessarily in a positive light (see
Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament volume I, page 37). To the pagan
Greeks this word often implied condescension, but to the Christian this word
implies submission of the human will to the will of God.

Christians gave the word a
quality expressing an inward virtue that is related primarily to God.
Christian "meekness" is based on humility which is expressed in the New
Testament as the supernatural quality that is the outgrowth of a renewed
nature. This renewal can only come when we surrender our lives to God and seek
His divine will in our lives. However, this submission is not an indication
of weakness. For the Christian, submission to God's control results in
strength "strength that is not our own but the strength that comes from God's
will working through our lives. The Bible is full of stories of God
intervening in the lives of men and women who call on Him for His help and of
stories of men and women willing to help others, but there are very few
examples of God intervening in the lives of those who prefer their own plan and
destiny except in cases where His intervention is judgment to bring about
redemption.

In the Old Testament book of
Genesis God preserved the "promised seed" of Genesis 3:15 by selecting Abraham
and his wife Sarah to be the parents of the family from which King David,
Mary of Nazareth, and Jesus the Messiah would come. Yahweh made a 3-fold Covenant with Abraham
promising him land, descendants, and a world wide blessing. At first the
question of her fertility had probably not concerned Sarah. She was beautiful;
a woman desired by kings (Genesis 12:15; 20:2) and promised by God to the
mother of a nation. However, as the years passed she began to be concerned
that God's plan needed a little help and so in her desire for a child and in
her pride she offered her husband her Egyptian slave girl, given to her by the Pharaoh
of Egypt. If her husband impregnated her slave girl the child born of the
union could be her child (Genesis 16:1-2). This was a common custom practiced
in Mesopotamia, the Levant, and in Egypt at this time. Unfortunately, this was
not God's plan. In Sarah's unwillingness to submit herself to God's plan her
infertility continued and the child born of this union would become a source of
tension and unrest within the family as Sarah continued to age.

Please read Genesis 18: 1-15:
The Theophany at Mamre

Question: Who is it who
comes to visit Abraham and Sarah at Mamre? What is their appearance? See
Genesis 18:1-2

Answer: It is Yahweh
accompanied by two others; all have the appearance of men.

Question: What is the
purpose of Yahweh's visit to Abraham and his wife?

Answer: The principle
purpose for the visitation to Abraham at Mamre is to announce that at this time
next year the child that was promised in Genesis 17:15-16 will be born to
Sarah. The text notes that Yahweh is accompanied by two "messengers".
What makes this passage so unique is the use of the singular and plural in
addressing the three visitors. In this passage Abraham addresses the 3
"men" in the singular and yet they reply in the plural.
For example:

Abraham: He looked up, and there he saw three men standing
near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet
them and bowed to the ground. 'My Lord [singular], he said (Genesis
18:3).

The three men: They [plural] replied, Do as you say (Genesis
18:5c).

In these 3 men, whom Abraham
addresses in the singular, many of the Fathers of the Church saw a
foreshadowing of the mystery of the Trinity. The representation of the Trinity
as three angels sitting around a table with the Oak of Mamre, a foreshadowing of
the cross, in the background is seen frequently in Eastern Rite Catholic
iconography.

There is a humorous exchange
between God and Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18:12-15. Upon hearing the
announcement of the birth of a son in a year's time Sarah laughs to herself,
repeating her husband's laughter in Genesis 17:17. When Yahweh asks Abraham, Why
did Sarah laugh? she tries to deny laughing because she is afraid. But He
is the God who knows everything from our most intimate thoughts to the hidden
motives behind our actions. In this passage Yahweh is not only reading Sarah's
thoughts, He is interpreting her statements by restating her thoughts in His
exchange with Abraham. First He restates Sarah's thoughts in verse 12: Now
that I am past the age of childbearing and my husband is an old man, is
pleasure to come my way again? In verse 13 God restates her thought as: Am
I really going to have a child now that I am old? Notice that Yahweh
interprets Sarah's thoughts about her husband's age and reshapes it into a
statement about her age which is the physical hindrance to the birth of
a child (in fact, it is Sarah infertility that is the problem). Finally, God
goes beyond her actual thoughts to the intent of those thoughts in His
rhetorical question: Is anything impossible for Yahweh? Yahweh has
overcome the physical impossibility of the fulfillment of the promise through
Sarah.

Question: But why did
Sarah laugh? Does God rebuke her for laughing?

Answer: God does not
rebuke her. Can her laughter indicate that she has suddenly realized that the
"joke" is on her? In her old age she had given up trying to conceive a child.
She had finally yielded herself to God and the result amazed her. In her old
age she would bear the promised heir! What was impossible for woman was
possible for God when that woman yielded in meekness to the will of God.

Question: What was
Yahweh's reply to Sarah's denial?

Answer: Yahweh's reply to
Sarah's denial is: Oh, yes you did! If Sarah had any doubts about the
identity of their visitor she is now convinced. With Abraham and Sarah God has
a holy couple who will become the parents of a holy people, a holy people who
will be called to be the Old Covenant Church, Israel. It will be the mission
of these holy descendants (through Sarah's son Isaac) to become witness to the
world of the One True God and through whom God will fulfill His plan to bring
forth the Messiah.

Another saint
who needed to learn that meekness leads to strength was Simon Peter. St. Peter
had physical courage, leadership, and faith but he did not have humility. His
denial of Christ three times after Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane
was not a crisis in faith but it was a crisis of expectation "the expectation of
Peter's plan verses God's plan. Jesus had been preparing His disciples and
Apostles for His Passion and death. The first prediction of His death was
given shortly after Peter is chosen as His Vicar of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in Matthew 16:21-23. The last prediction of His Passion was given before
leaving the Upper Room the night of the Last Supper in Matthew 26:31-35.

Question: What
was Peter's response to the revelation of God's plan in these two passages?

Answer: In
the first revelation of God's plan Peter rejects Jesus' warning and is
rebuked. In the last revelation Peter professes his devotion to Jesus and his
willingness to die for Him.

Question: Does
he make good on his boast? See Matthew 26:69-75

Answer: No,
he denies Jesus 3 times and wept bitterly in his humiliated state.

His failure
results in Peter being stripped of all those attributes that made him a
leader. In denying his Master 3 times he was stripped of his courage, his
self-confidence, and his self-worth and was left humbled and broken. But he
emerged from his covenant ordeal strengthened in his faith and humbled "in his
repentance meekly submitting his life entirely to God. His lesson in humility
made him a far better leader of the New Covenant people. The pain of his
failure would give him a servant's heart and a genuine compassion for the
sinners he would lead to Christ. This remarkable change is evident as he takes
up his leadership role on the birth of the Church at the second great Pentecost
which is related in Acts chapter 2. So transformed was Peter into the humble
servant of Christ that he did not fail his final test in his willingness to die
for his Savior a little less than 2 decades later, as related in the History of
the Church by the 4th century Bishop Eusebius when Peter's meekness
was transformed into real strength and courage in submitting himself to the
will of God in martyrdom (Eusebius, Church History, XXV 1-8; XXX.2).

There is also
a very moving story of Peter's martyrdom told in the 2nd century
apocryphal Acts of Peter. In fleeing Rome along the Via Appia, during
Emperor Nero's persecution of Christians, Peter and his wife came face to face
with Jesus Christ. Shocked to see his Savior on the way to Rome, Peter asked
Jesus: Domine, quo vadis? [Lord, where are you going?]. According
to the ancient account, Jesus stopped, looked intently at Peter and responded: I
am going to Rome to be crucified. It was when Jesus made this statement
that Peter understood it was time for the prophecy to be fulfilled that Jesus
had made to him after the Resurrection, nearly forty years earlier. On the
shores of the Sea of Galilee Jesus told Peter: Amen, amen, I say to you,
when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but
when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress
you and lead you where you do not want to go.' He said this signifying by what
kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him
[Peter], Follow me.'" (John 21:18-19).

Peter
immediately took his wife by the hand and returned to Rome. His wife was
martyred first (Eusebius, Church History XXX.2). St. Clement, disciple
of Peter and 4th Bishop of Rome after Peter, records her: They
say, accordingly, that when the blessed Peter saw his own wife led out to die,
he rejoiced because of her summons and her return home, and called to her very
encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name, and saying, Oh thou,
remember the Lord.' Such was the marriage of the blessed, and their perfect
disposition toward those dearest to them (St. Clement, Stromata, VII.II).

When he was
taken by the Romans soldiers to face his crucifixion, St. Peter, Vicar of the
King of Kings, requested that he be crucified upside down since he was not
worthy to be crucified as his Master had died. Yes, the big fisherman had
learned meekness and total submission to the will of his Lord and God. The
result of His submission was the courage to embrace death in the name of His
Savior [also see Origen's account of the martyrdom of St. Peter, (Origin, d.
circa AD230), as quoted by Bishop Eusebius in History of the Church, Book
III, chapter I]. Also see The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, Jerome,
(d. AD420), pg. 363; Tertullian, (d. circa AD220), in De Paraescript.
Haeret., chapter 36;and The Acts of Peter].

We could have
no better example of Christian meekness than the example set for us by the very
first Christian "the very first human person to believe that Jesus of Nazareth
was the Son of God.

Question: Who
was that person, clothed in grace and humility who submitted in perfect
obedience to the will of God?

Answer: Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God the Son.
From the first moment of the angel Gabriel's announcement that of all women
born, she had been chosen to bear the "promised seed" [Luke 126-38], to
Simeon's prophecy of her suffering [Luke 2:33-35], to witnessing her Son's
Passion on the Cross [John 19:26], Mary submitted herself completely to God's
plan for her life. The Fathers of the Church saw her as the model Christian. St.
Irenaeus praises her above all women when he writes: Being obedient she
became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. [ ].
The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin
Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith (St. Irenaeus,
Against Heresies, III.22.4). Comparing her humility and obedience with Eve's
rebellion and disobedience, St. Jerome writes of her: Death through Eve,
life through Mary (St. Jerome as quoted in the Catechism #494). In the Old
Covenant, the holy Ark of the Covenant was God's presence with His Covenant
people. In Mary's "yes" in meekly submitting herself to God's plan, she became
the Ark of the New Covenant. Her womb became the first Eucharistic tabernacle,
and her travels to visit Elizabeth her cousin and her journey to Bethlehem, became the first Eucharistic processions.

Pope Benedict XVI expressed this dimension of Mary's meekness in her submission to God his homily on June 1, 2005: In a certain way, we can
say that her journey was "and we are pleased to highlight this in the Year of
the Eucharist "the first Eucharistic procession of history. Living tabernacle
of God-made-flesh, Mary is the Ark of the Covenant in whom the Lord has visited
and redeemed His people. Jesus' presence fills her with the Holy Spirit .Is
not this too the joy of the Church, that incessantly welcomes Jesus in the Holy
Eucharist and carries Him to the world with the testimony of assiduous charity
permeated by faith and hope? Yes, to welcome Christ and to take Him to others
is the true joy of Christians! Dear brothers and sisters let us carry on and
imitate Mary, a deeply Eucharistic soul, and all our lives will become a
Magnificat (Pope Benedict XVI, June 1, 2005).

God always seems
to weave the unexpected into His plan. In His plan it isn't the proud or the
strong that conquer and claim the reward of kneeling before the King of
Kings "it's the meek and the humble who are the victors and their victory comes
upon their surrender to the will of the Most High God.

Question: Who
was it, other than St. Joseph that God first chose to give the privilege of
bowing down in adoration to His Son? Was that first delegation composed of
kings or priests?

Answer: No,
shepherds "the dregs of Jewish society who lived in a state of such ritual
impurity that their testimony wasn't even accepted in a Jewish Law court. It
is the meek and lowly that God exalts because they know they need God. In the
case of the Shepherds of Bethlehem, the meek were kneeling before the one only
the meek are privileged to see "the meek were kneeling before the Christ.

And in
yielding in meekness to the plan of God working in our lives we are promised

FOR
THEY WILL INHERIT THE LAND

God's
servants shall dwell in the land and possess it; it shall be the heritage of
their descendants; those who love God's name shall dwell there. Psalm
69:36b-37

Come,
you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34b

Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us
a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in
heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith to a
salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

The first beatitude places us
before the throne of God. The second purifies us and the third places us in
the hands of the Master as we submit in meekness and humility to His will and
His plan for our lives. There are two ways to interpret the promise associated
with this blessing. Bible scholars both ancient and modern have seen in this
blessing an allusion to Christ's victory in breaking of the power of Satan over
the earth. The first beatitudes to Adam and Eve were the blessings of fertility
and dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28). In our original parent's Fall from
grace, Satan began to usurp and pervert these blessings. The blessing of
sexual union between a man and a woman was given as a gift by God to be applied
only in the context of covenantal marriage. In marriage a man and a woman are
given the extraordinary possibility to become co-creators with God in the birth
of the next generation. Abuse of this blessing has led to sin and suffering.
Satan also usurped man's dominion over the earth. In Jesus' defeat of sin and
death on the Cross, Satan's control over the earth and his power to dominate
the earth has been thwarted. No longer does Satan have the power to dominate
us because we have been reborn through our baptism into the family of God. We
belong to the God who created and dominates the earth, and as His children and
his heirs we inherit the earth. CCC # 299: for God willed creation as a
gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him.

Some scholars look to a
connection between the promise of the meek inheriting the land and Psalm 37:11,
which in most English translations seems to be a repeat of this promise, But
the meek [anawim = economicallypoor and disadvantaged] shall
inherit the earth (land) (Psalm 37:11). The Hebrew word which is usually
translated as "meek" in the Psalm passage, however, does not have the same force
and character as the Greek word, praus. The Hebrew word is anawim. In
his book The Beatitudes, Soundings in Christian Tradition, Dr. Tudwell
points out (page 31) that the Hebrew word anawim is not primarily used
in a moral context [as the Greek word praus, is used in a moral context
in its Christian interpretation. In Jewish society the anawim were the
economically poor who lacked political power and social influence; the
disadvantaged for whom those blessed with wealth and positions of civil and religious
authority were responsible. The anawim are the "poor" Jesus addressed
in His Sermon on the Plain in Luke chapter 6. It is for this reason that I do
not see a strong connection between this promise which addresses the "meek" who
yield themselves to God's will and the disadvantaged "poor", anawim ,
of Psalm 37:11 who are promised social justice in the next life.

The third step on the road to
salvation and the third promise:

Blessed are the meek: yielding our will to God's will for
our lives = renewal à inherit "the
Land", the Church =dominion to bind and loose

Questions for group
discussion:

As mentioned there is another
theological and scriptural way to view the promise of "inheriting the land"
made to the "blessed meek" who yield their lives as tools in the hands of the
Master. In relating this passage to the Old Testament "the land" is probably a
more accurate translation than "the earth", and the New American Bible
translation reflects this interpretation [the same Hebrew word is translated as
both "land" and "earth"]. In the Old Testament references to "the land" refer
to the Promised land of Israel [Numbers 20:12 ] which became a Biblical "type"
for heaven, as the inspired writer of Hebrews relates in Hebrews 11:9-10
speaking of Abraham's obedient journey from Ur of the Chaldees [Genesis 11:28;
15:7] to Canaan [Genesis 12:4-5]: By faith he sojourned in the Promised Land
as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the
same promise; for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose
architect and maker is God. Also see Revelation 21:10-11.

In Biblical interpretation it is
always helpful to start with the literal interpretation as understood by the
original recipients of the Biblical teaching.

Answer: The 1st
century Jews and Israelites were looking for the restoration of "the land" of
Israel as promised by the Old Testament prophets as it would be established in
the Messiah's kingdom on earth and the home of the faithful Covenant people "the
New Covenant people as prophesized in Jeremiah 31:31-34. As a Biblical "type"
of God's kingdom this promise can not only be seen as the promise of heaven "a
promise already given in the first beatitude, but it can also be seen as a
promise of the inheritance of the earth through the "new Israel" which the
Messiah is prophesized to establish "the promised 5th everlasting
kingdom of Daniel chapters 2 and 7. This is what most 1st century
Jews and Israelites had been praying for. The new Israel of the Davidic King
Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church founded by the 12 spiritual fathers, the
Apostles.

Question: How is it that
the promise and the prophecy of Daniel chapters 2 and 7 have been fulfilled?

Answer: The promise of
this beatitude and the Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled in the Universal Church as the "new Israel", the earthly home of the Covenant people until they leave
this exile for their home in heaven. We, as the New Covenant Children of God
are the inheritors of this "land", the "new Israel" of the Universal/ Catholic
Church [catholic means universal], a world-wide kingdom that carries the
world-wide blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with power and dominion over
the earth "to bind and loose" [Matthew 16:19; 18:18; John 20:22-23], and the
invitation of His gift of salvation to every nation on the face of the earth!
[For additional passages affirming the Church's dominion over the earth also
see Matthew 28:18-20 & Luke 10:16].